Are symbolic racism and traditional prejudice part of a contemporary authoritarian attitude syndrome?

This research used the General Social Survey for 1988 to investigate the extent to which traditional racial prejudice and symbolic racism had syndromic qualities among white Americans. The correlations between the measures of traditional prejudice and a wide variety of authoritarianism-related social attitudes were often moderately high. However, the associations of the measure of symbolic racism with these attitudes typically were similar. Additionally, the loadings of both types of prejudice on a general attitudinal authoritarianism factor were moderately high. Moreover, the measures of traditional prejudice and symbolic racism had substantial correlations with one another. Thus there was little in the findings to support the characterization by Sears and his associates of symbolic racism as a distinctive racial disposition.     

For better? For worse? Humanitarian aid in conflict1

Humanitarian aid should be judged against international humanitarian law (IHL), which gives civilians certain basic rights, including protection in armed conflicts. Aid agencies should consider the various side-effects of their interventions, in order to assess the net impact and decide whether to work in any given situation. They have no responsibility to provide aid where the net impact is negative, or to those who violate international law. If governments fail in their responsibilities to protect civilians, this does not give aid agencies the responsibility of filling the vacuum; but it does mean that they should campaign for governments to act. Current Northern debate on support for the citizens of countries in conflict is usually expressed in terms of charity, rather than a response to what people are doing for themselves. Aid agencies should help to change this.     

Controlling Internal Controls

Two recent examinations of management practices in three federal departments provide contemporary evidence of the need to incorporate procedures like those of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the public sector. Although each department established what appeared to be well-designed internal controls, all lacked sufficient monitoring and assessment of the efficacy of those controls. By requiring senior management to attest to the strength of their control mechanisms, as required by the newly revised OMB Circular A-123, the quality of this monitoring should improve. Findings from a recent study of private-sector implementation of these reforms are described, along with suggestions for public administration research and practice at all levels of government.